I love Sam Jackson. Not only is he great in The Avengers, he delivers the best profanities this side of Morgan Freeman, and he was in one of the top five death scenes in cinematic history. No one is questioning the man’s awesomeness. But I also get the feeling that Sam Jackson is kind of a surly dick sometimes, in the way that a guy who has been in the business for 30 years and can say what he damn well pleases might be a dick. That might be the case here, where — in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel — he basically calls out Kenan Thompson for his own profanity f**k up on Saturday Night Live last weekend.

Discussing his “S.N.L.” appearance with Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday night, Mr. Jackson said he had spoken only half a swear word in the first instance, adding: “I got the next whole word out.” He also expressed surprise that NBC had censored the words in a West Coast rebroadcast of “Saturday Night Live.”

Mr. Jackson said in the interview that Mr. Thompson “was supposed to cut me off.”

“So you’re saying this was Kenan’s fault?” Mr. Kimmel asked.

After a shrug, Mr. Jackson replied: “I’m used to working with professionals that know their lines. Even the ones that are written on cue cards in front of you.”

That’s cold! And no offense to Mr. Jackson, but if there’s anyone who is a professional over on “SNL,” it’s Kenan Thompson, who has been there for a decade, and who has been in the business for nearly 20 years.

You could chalk it up to Jackson being a little chaffed about how the whole thing went down, but this is the same guy who also called out New York Times critic, A.O. Scott, for a less than enthusiastic review of The Avengers, and who in discussing that incident with Huffington Post this week, also called out his Unbreakable director, M. Night Shyamalan.

“I read sh*t about me. I read everything I can about me. And if you say something bad about me and I agree with it, I’ll be OK with it. But if you say something that’s f**ked-up about a piece of bullsh*t pop culture that really is good — The Avengers is a f**king great movie; Joss did an awesome job — if you don’t get it, then just say, ‘I don’t get it.’ In general, you don’t compare that sh*t to a John Wayne movie. And you don’t call me a game-show host and get away with that sh*t.” This same lack of bullsh*t was applied to his Unbreakable director M. Night Shyamalan, who the actor asserted “hasn’t made a really good movie since then.”

All true things! So, should we be celebrating Sam Jackson for speaking the truth? Or calling him a dick for calling out other people? Eh? Maybe both.

You might not think he’s very good at what he does, but can you really call into question his professionalism? The man shows up, gets cast as whatever they cast him as and does his job and you don’t see him on TMZ every other weekend for punching a stripper in the face. And when Sammy J. dropped an F-bomb Mr. Thompson reacted coolly and kept the bit going…pretty pro to me even if you don’t necessarily think What Up With That is very funny.

I can call his professionalism into question based on vague ideas if other people are saying he is a professional based on vague ideas. My point wasn’t that I don’t like him, nor was it that he’s not professional. It’s that saying one guy is professional because he’s been in the business for 20 years leaves a wide open door for interpretation.

i think it’s far more fair to say that a guy who’s been doing sketch comedy for nearly 20 years knows what he’s doing (funny or not) than saying he might not be professional. one assumption is probably accurate, the other isn’t. i find it hard to believe he was supposed to cut sam jackson off and just forgot.

“I can call his professionalism into question based on vague ideas if other people are saying he is a professional based on vague ideas.”

again, a guy who’s been around for as long as he has isn’t some “vague idea”. it’s very reasonable to assume he’s a professional at his job. it’s not reasonable to call into question his professionalism. lesson learned indeed!

i took dustin’s calling kenan a “professional” to basically mean that he’s been around long enough to not make so big of a fuck up that he’d just completely forget his cue to cut Sam Jackson off and then do it again immediately after letting the “bullshit” fly by. all he was saying was that the guy’s competent enough to not make mistakes like that, which i think is a perfectly reasonable and accurate assumption to make